Sensual Winds

“What took you to New York City?” he asked.

“An internship with Regents Cable. I worked for a few different companies and then Regents called. They had an excellent educational program that paid for me to get a degree, so I went back to school. Things are finally falling into place and I’m being promoted to director of special events.”

“Is work all you do? Isn’t there someone special in your life?”

She looked kind of wary. They’d never ventured into this territory before. Before, they’d been protected by the rules of his engagement to Emma. Now their status was different.

“There isn’t anyone, but I’m happy.”

Her gaze was intelligent and assessing. He felt like he was on one of the court shows his mother was fond of watching when she was home. Right now, she was in Cairo, sightseeing and having the time of her life, no doubt.

“If I’m getting too personal, just let me know.”

Doreen crossed her left leg over her right. “I’m letting you know.”

Lucas took a mental step back. “All right, city girl. I’ll leave you alone.”

“Thank you.”

The unapologetic stop sign had been thrust into his face, halting his forward trajectory down the road of her personal life.

There was time, he knew, but everything was happening at breakneck speed, and for some reason he felt the need to know so much about her. But he didn’t rush. He was sorry he pressed Doreen.

The silence stretched as he drove the back roads, cutting through the residential neighborhoods he loved to scout.

“That blue house looks familiar. I know that sounds ridiculous because I’ve never been here before, but the white spindles on the front porch, the picket fence leading to the curb…Is that the first house you renovated?”

How long ago had he described that house to her? Seven, no, eight months ago? How many conversations had they had since then? He looked at the house and pushed back his baseball cap.

“That’s the one. You have an incredible memory.”

“Are the owners still there or was it resold?”

“No, they’re still there. He’s a former mayor and she was a state senator of Ohio. My guys built them a garage last month.”

“Too small a job for you?”

“No, I was finishing my house.”

“Right. Sorry.” The tension in Doreen’s face was etched around her mouth and forehead. “What’s that clicking sound?”

Lucas pulled over and shut off the engine. “Just wait a couple seconds and look in that direction.”

“It sounds like a herd of horses.”

“When have you ever heard a herd of horses?” he teased.

“On TV.”

“Just watch. Listen.” He touched her shoulder, his fingers grazing her soft dark hair. A man could easily learn to love holding the strands all night long.

Just as the thought shocked him, the rain had the same effect on her. It stormed up the block like the infamous running of the bulls, overpowering the truck, thumping the roof, causing her to flinch. Her shoulder bumped his and he chuckled.

Doreen punched him in the thigh.

“What did I do?” he protested.

“You’re laughing at me.”

“You should see your face. You look like a kid. Like you’ve never seen rain before.”

“I’ve seen it, but I’ve never heard it like this before.” They sat there for a few minutes as she watched it rain all around them. “I feel vulnerable out here. I left New York and it was a beautiful day, and now I’m trapped here and I can’t leave. I feel as if I’m not safe.”

For a second she’d scratched his leg with her nails, but now she held her hands in her lap.

This wasn’t a case of hysterics. Her fear was contained but just beneath the surface.

The clouds were ominous and the tide high. The storm promised to be strong and it could turn deadly at any time. Hurricane Ana had already proved herself to be formidable and had drifted back out to sea. No one wished for her return, but the Weather Service predicted she’d make landfall again in a couple days.

Lucas looked at Doreen, whose eyes reminded him of the time he’d been in Africa and had seen liquid gold flecked with tidbits of coal. He’d seen nothing more beautiful.

“I won’t let anything happen to you,” he told her. He knew his reassurance might not hold much weight, but she was here because of him. He had to help her get through this.

Doreen didn’t believe him. She folded her arms across her chest, her neck tilted and her eyebrow quirked up on the end. Words were unnecessary.

“Let’s just get to the house, Lucas, and tomorrow your babysitting job will be over.”

This was the first crack in her facade. “Hey.” He unbuckled his seat belt and slid across the seat. “Come on now. I promise not to let anything bad happen to you. All right?” Some of the tension eased from her body and she looked at him and then away. “Are we friends again?”

“Maybe,” she said, and he got the impression she didn’t want to hurt his feelings by calling him a liar to his face.

“Can I hug you? A tiny hug? I’m not trying to feel you up for free or anything.”

She laughed a little, her hands gripping the seat. He wanted her to trust him.

“Please?” he asked.

“Okay,” she said, and to his surprise she reached over and hugged him.

“Oh, my God,” he whispered. “I’m never going to want to stop holding you.”

“Lucas!” She was playing again.

Even with her protest, he still didn’t let her go for another few seconds, then reluctantly, he slid over and started the truck. This was the Doreen he knew. Always getting on him for something. “All right, we’re going. But you’ve got to promise we’ll do that again.”

She laughed, sounding more like herself. “I really do think you have a mental illness.”

“Why? Because I complimented your hugging ability? You don’t hug like a cute girl, with your butt stuck out and a pat on the back. Somebody knows they’ve been touched when they hug you. That’s really good.”

“Thanks,” she said, a sincere smile blooming on her face.

Thunder rumbled. “I better get to the hardware store before you have to swim back to New York. You look like you’re tired of Florida and you’ve only been here thirty minutes.”

“Swim? I don’t know how to swim. I began learning, but never finished. I need a refresher course.”

Her expression was so cute he could tell she was serious, although she was smiling.

“A refresher course.” He nodded. “Not sure they offer those, but you could just get in the water and start stroking.”

“I could try that.”

Thunder boomed and she jumped off the seat, her hands shooting up. “My goodness. I have to stop that.”

“You sure do.” He laughed. “You’re about to scare me to death and I’ll kill somebody.” Lucas looked at her, then at the road. Then at her again. “You’re too old to be screaming.”

“Lucas McCoy, how are you telling me I’m too old for something? I didn’t say that to you last month when you told me you chased down that ice cream truck, did I?”

“There’s my friend Doreen.”

She rolled her eyes and acted like she wasn’t going to smile at him. “Did you order some thunder to get the real me to come out?”

“As a matter of fact, I did.”

“You’re full of it. You didn’t know I was coming.”

“There’s that New York woman I’ve been missing. Florida women are so Southern and sweet. New York women are mean and hard.” He pumped his fist at her and she playfully hit his hand. “See what I mean? You’re mean as hell.”

“I don’t want to be mean to you. I don’t know how to be.” The words settled between them. “We need to talk, Lucas.”

He drove awhile. “And we will. Let’s give it a minute to settle in. Do you like hip hop or jazz?”

“Both.” Her nails were polished this pretty pink color, and he liked that. This was the land of white-tipped nails and shih tzu dogs and year-round tans. Doreen, however, was an original.

He pressed the button on the radio. “This station plays a little of both at different times of the day. The DJ—Holy Terror—is one of my best friends. His real name is Terrence Jeffries. Used to play for the Dolphins. He’s hard on women, but he means well, and he’s funny.”

“We’ve got some real characters in New York, too. But you already know that.”

Lucas turned down the volume. “You’re right. Let’s go ahead and clear the air. I don’t want what happened between Emma and me to affect what happens while you’re here.”

She looked uneasy. “I don’t want to know about your relationship. I worked for her, and that essentially ended today. It’s a formality once I get back, but she’ll have already moved into her new office with her new assistant, Carl.”

“All the better,” he said.

Assessing and direct, she stared him down. “What does that mean?”

“It means that whatever happens this weekend, you won’t feel obligated to report to Emma. She won’t pressure you into telling her what went on, and you won’t feel as if you have to navigate between two worlds. You’re not obligated to play the straight man for both of us. I’m sorry I even put you in that situation.”

“Oh.” A sweep of her hand sent her hair behind her ear. Silver hoop earrings slid into view.

“Now that’s it’s over between Emma and me, you can tell me if she said anything bad about me.”

She exhaled through her nose and intentionally blinked at him. “Lucas.” The way she said his name made him laugh. A thin line between patience and trouble. And she was short on patience.

He started laughing. “I’m just kidding. All you said was ‘Oh.’ I was expecting something else. Like ‘Thank God,’ or ‘I’m so glad I don’t have to listen to you two anymore.’ But ‘Oh’? It’s kind of a letdown, to be honest.”

Exasperation and relief seemed to make her shake her head. “Aren’t you supposed to be going somewhere?”

“Now you want to get bossy and evil.”

“Just drive before you get into more trouble.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Is it really over?” Doreen asked.

“Yes.”

“How do you know?”

“Because we don’t love each other anymore,” he explained as he turned to look at her. Over her shoulder he noticed the drains were full and made a mental note to call Stephen and report the blockage. Stephen Morales was not only one of his best friends, but also the deputy sheriff. He didn’t chance driving. Not now while his life was swirling with the water, spinning in a new direction.

“Then why did you want Emma to come down here so badly?” Doreen asked him.

“To work out our problems. I don’t believe in giving anything up easily. I have no siblings and only a mother left. I don’t want you to feel sorry for me, but I believe in trying to work out things that I start. If she had come down here, I would have asked her to stay.”

“I have a huge adopted family—”

“You’re lucky,” he broke in, wistful. “I’m sorry. That’s something I’ve always wanted. My mom’s away right now, but she’s the reason I live in Key West. While she’s alive, I want to be with her. Emma isn’t attached to her family. She doesn’t have a relationship with them at all. That was important to me.”

“Did she know that?” Doreen held up her hand. “Of course she did. If you’re telling me, you told her.”

“You know I did, but that’s all right. I feel a sense of relief.”

“No sadness, Lucas? I know I would feel a sense of loss or something.”

Lucas started the car and pulled away from the curb. There was a sense of loss. He’d built a house for a woman he’d thought he’d share a life with. “I’d be an unfeeling bastard if I didn’t feel anything. But it’s not as if I didn’t see the writing on the wall.” He drove in silence for a while.

“You seem so settled about everything yesterday. I thought you were going to take my head off.”

“Doreen, I was wrong for that. Really wrong. It wasn’t your responsibility to field our personal calls and referee our discussions. That shouldn’t have ever happened. That won’t ever happen again.”

“How do you know?”

“Because the woman I get with will never get tired of talking to me.”

Doreen’s fingers plowed through her hair and she tilted her head. He knew that move. She didn’t believe him. “And you know this how?” she asked.

“Because I won’t get tired of talking to her. I’ve got to change, too. I realize that now. Our relationship is over and the love is gone, but maybe that wouldn’t have happened if I’d given her some alternatives. I’ll know for the next time. And there definitely will be a next time.”

Chapter 4

Where Doreen was emotional over personal decisions, Lucas was decisive. Maybe that was why relationships had been challenging for her in the past, Doreen thought. Lucas’s epiphany startled her, but she settled into the seat knowing that she wouldn’t have let distance keep her away from a good man like him.

Letting the stress ease from her body, Doreen studied Lucas, comparing his features to what she’d seen on the webcam. The camera hadn’t done him justice. He was a handsome man, his face smooth and brown like dark sugar, his hair soft, curly and black. His baseball cap seemed to be as much a part of him as his T-shirt and sunglasses, which he wore attached to a thick string around his neck, even though there was no hint of sun in the sky.

Like all handsome men, he had long dark eyelashes that fluttered when he smiled, and she found herself wanting to see that wide grin and feel his laugh run all over her skin.

The one thing she’d adored on men were full lips, and Lucas’s mouth seemed to invite kisses. She sighed and when he looked at her, she looked away, not wanting to get caught staring. But she had been enjoying the view.

He was more handsome than any photo could capture and she was only slightly ashamed that she’d imagined him sad about his breakup with Emma.

Abandoning that line of thinking, she focused her attention on the scenery once again. A few minutes later Lucas pulled into the parking lot of a home-improvement store. “Why does everyone have so much wood?” she asked, noticing sheets of plywood on all the trucks.

“We have a lot of windows to protect from the hurricane. I just need a few sheets. You game?”

“Sure. What else do I have to do?”

They got out, and her hair danced in the wind. A stray shopping cart, spurned on by the wind, headed for her. She caught it and pushed it toward the entrance without missing a beat.

Emma would have had a fit.

Lucas stopped that train of thought because Emma wouldn’t have even been at the hardware store with him.

Doreen stopped just inside the door and he came up short, his hand landing on the small of her back.

“This isn’t appropriate.” Doreen turned around and seemed ready to leave.

He moved his hand although he didn’t want to. “What?”

“We need one of those types of carts for the wood.” Her look said she was confused. “Where’s everybody getting those? Our buggy is wrong.”

“Just leave this one,” he told her. The wood he needed seemed to be leaving the store quickly, which meant they were in danger of running out. “We’ll find one while we’re inside.”

When they entered the store, Doreen veered off toward the wallpaper department.

“You coming?” he asked.

“No, you go ahead. I think I’ll look around. See what I can find.”

Lucas hurried over to the lumber department, pulling on his gloves, just as another man reached the same section of wood. They split the remaining wood and Lucas loaded it onto a spare cart.

He bypassed the cutting area in search of Doreen.

There was no custom cutting on pre-storm days. Sheets were split in half, and that was it. If the line had been shorter, he’d have saved himself the trouble of opening his workshop and cutting the wood himself. But that would add an hour to his wait, and he didn’t want to waste the time.

He grabbed a pack of blades and more gloves, and stopped himself from picking up more duct tape. Several rolls of it were somewhere at home. He just had to find it in the shamble of a workshop. Organization hadn’t been a priority. Not with everyone hurrying to get the house done in time for Emma’s arrival.

And now she wasn’t ever going to come. The irony wasn’t lost on Lucas.

Walking the top of each aisle, he looked for her and found Doreen a couple aisles down looking at flashlights, a basket on her arm.

Doreen acknowledged him with a smile and came toward him. Men turned and followed her movement as if she were on a runway.

Her clothing was completely wrong. The black short-waist jacket with the big metallic buttons hugged a chest that was curvaceous enough to make men glance first, then openly admire her. The fitted black pants complemented a figure that visited the gym and spinning class on a regular basis yet didn’t say she was a gym rat. He hated “I have zero percent body fat” type people anyway, and Doreen wasn’t one of them.

She’d once confided how much she loved working out. It calmed her down when she got tired of working with frustrating people. He couldn’t help wondering what else helped calm her down.

Lucas wondered as to the direction of his thoughts, given that he’d just broken up with Emma. How could he be thinking about Doreen when he’d just ended things with his fiancée?

He slowed his cart as Doreen approached, and smiles fell off the faces of the men that she passed. When she stopped in front of him he almost expected lights to flash over his head like he’d won a jackpot.

Lucas looked into her basket, filled with safety glasses, sturdy work gloves, flashlights, gum, and a men’s magazine on fitness that boasted an article on what men wanted. The top had an official seal on it and he regarded it closely. It was the word official that struck him.

The relationship with Emma had been over for a long time. They’d just made it official today. Lucas sighed, having come to the sound conclusion he’d known in his heart for a long time.

“You could have just asked,” he said to Doreen, referring to her magazine. “I could have told you what men want.”

Embarrassment crept over her face. “You’re such a know-it-all.”

He guided her away from two men who’d begun a heated argument over two remaining bags of sand and he steered Doreen into a slow-moving checkout line.

“You’ve got nails?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“And you hammer them right into the house?” she asked, shifting from foot to foot in the long line.

Lucas nodded. “That’s right.”

“No boards to protect the frame or anything?”

The question sounded odd to him, but he didn’t ask for clarification. “No.”

“So every storm you put new holes in the house?”

Other people in line who could hear their conversation smiled at Lucas, but Doreen was oblivious as she flipped through her magazine.

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